I have been preparing for this trip for more than a year now and I am very excited! There are 29 species of spiny wild aubergines known in Tanzania, including 5 species that do not occur anywhere else. I also think there might be at least three new undescribed species, because I found a few herbarium specimens that did not match anything known to science. I have been working on Solanum subgenus Leptostemonum in Africa for almost three years now, at the Natural History Museum, and I am working towards a taxonomic treatment of the whole group.

Unusual specimen from the Ruvu forest near Dar es Salaam – this could be a new species but we will need to find it in the forest before we can be sure!

I'm Maria Vorontsova from the Botany Department. Join me as I head to Tanzania and Kenya to hunt for wild spiny aubergines. I'm looking forward to an interesting journey, some interesting company and some interesting finds.